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McClaren gets some friendly news at last

Frank Praverman, Matt Dickinson and agencies

February 15 2007, 12:52pm, The Times

The Football Association have confirmed England’s commitment to friendly matches will be reduced from 20 to 18 over the course of the new four-year TV deal. Steve McClaren, the England head coach, had earlier backed his assistant Terry Venables’s call for training camps to replace some international friendlies but was aware that the FA are also under pressure to maximise revenues from the new - and hugely expensive - Wembley Stadium.

“We are all one organisation and priority has to be the success of the England team,” Adrian Bevington, the FA director of communications, said. “Executives, including [chief executive] Brian Barwick have already started discussing with Steve and his coaching staff the issues that have been raised. It is accurate that we just issued a…